Our Secret World - Live At CARA
Kurt Rosenwinkel and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos: music you can see

"I visualise music as a comet flying through the universe. If a musician can meditate deeply enough, they can project themselves off the planet and place themselves at a certain point in space. Then the same comet passes by and simply takes the musician with it." Kurt Rosenwinkel

Fifteen years after the recording of Our Secret World, the Portuguese big band and the virtuoso guitarist from Philadelphia return to the album’s fascinating imagery in a live performance at CARA, recorded in 2021 and now released on vinyl, available for pre-order.

This edition includes four songs also released on video: ‘Our Secret World’, ‘Dream Of The Old’, ‘Turns’ and ‘Use of Light’, which take on a new life and reveal in their expression the value of time that has intertwined, in a deeper way, the bond between the musicians and the arrangements of the guitarist's compositions.

Rosenwinkel is a musician of indisputable prominence in modern jazz and a composer with its own solid and unique universe. There is a mystery that emanates from his music, an overwhelming force in the harmonic progressions he uses that seems to free the music from any genre or theoretical consciousness to tell us a story, enveloping us in an atmosphere full of textures.

One could say it's highly cinematic music, but perhaps it's something beyond that. Perhaps this is because it is often inspired by visual elements, as is the case with ‘Turns’, influenced by architectural drawings, building plans that decorated Kurt's bedroom, or ‘Dream Of The Old’ based on the image-memory of a group of older people (a kind of old folks home) on the porch of the house in front of the one where Kurt lived with his friends when he was studying at Berklee College of Music, they too on the porch watching them from the opposite side of the moment and also of life.

These four compositions also strike a balance between sophisticated and complex harmonies, and simple ideas with a truly emotional character. Is this, on the one hand, the result of a wide range of musical references - from hip-hop to classical music - or the consequence of an approach to the way he plays the guitar that is very close to the piano, which was his first instrument?

The fact is that Rosenwinkel's compositions emphasize a language that is his own, inimitable and unique.

The arrangements by Carlos Azevedo and Pedro Guedes are shaped around this singular voice, respecting its essence, giving it body and enjoying the vast sound palette provided by the big band, but without stripping it of its identity. It's a delicate balance that has matured over the years in which this music has been played all over Europe and the USA, always seeking a more refined sound that is finally reflected in this edition of “Our Secret World Live At CARA”.

Music and Guitar
Kurt Rosenwinkel

Musical Direction
Pedro Guedes

Arrangements
Carlos Azevedo (1,2,3), Pedro Guedes (4)

Soloists
Kurt Rosenwinkel, José Pedro Coelho (3)

Woodwinds: João Guimarães, João Pedro Brandão, Mário Santos, José Pedro Coelho, Rui Teixeira
Trumpets: Luís Macedo, Javier Pereiro, Rogério Ribeiro, Hugo Silva
Trombones: Daniel Dias, Andreia Santos, Álvaro Pinto, Gonçalo Dias
Rhythm Section: Carlos Azevedo - Piano, Demian Cabaud - Double Bass, Marcos Cavaleiro - Drums

Produced by Pedro Guedes
Recorded Live by Mário Barreiros, CARA, Matosinhos. July 20th 2021
Assistant Engineer: Nuno Couto
Mixed and Mastered by Zé Nando Pimenta, Arda Recorders
Lacquer by Sidney Claire Meyer, Emil Berliner Studios
Production Manager: Cláudia Pinto
Design: Dobra
Photography: Alexandra Corte-Real, João Maya and Pedro Pinto
Executive Production: Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos

CARA 009 · 2025

LP · Digital